Demon in hospital with bleeding lung

Andrew Stafford, Brisbane

SECOND-YEAR Melbourne player Tom McDonald was admitted to hospital here yesterday with bleeding on the lungs after a collision in the first quarter against the Brisbane Lions forced his immediate substitution.

"He's stabilised, he's been able to speak to his parents," coach Mark Neeld said last night. "He'll stay in Brisbane for a while; he can't fly with the team.

"Obviously our concern is [for] his long-term health. The reports coming back from the hospital say he's going to be OK; he'll be sore for a while and we'll just monitor that."

McDonald tweeted from his hospital bed: ''All good guys. Be back soon.''

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Neeld refused to blame the loss of forwards Mitch Clark and Brad Green for his team's 61-point loss to the Lions. "Injuries are part of the game, and there's a few clubs going through that at the moment. It's testing our depth and those types of things, but they certainly weren't the reason why we got beaten," he said.

But he conceded the Demons had been unable to make the most of its opportunities when they did win the ball. "We only went down in the clearances by one; we had a good result with contested possessions. We had a positive inside-50 count, so that indicates that we had enough of the footy.

"Fifty-four inside 50s for eight goals is an area we need to work on … A combination of us not using the footy as well as we would have liked, and Brisbane, they worked really hard and really well defensively. Their ability to capitalise on the turnovers that they caused was better than ours."

Michael Voss looked almost shocked when told his side was only one game outside the eight. "The guys have done wonderfully to be able to work their way back into the competition," he said. "We've put ourselves in that mix, and there's a fairly large group that's hovering around that area.

"I guess if there's [a] carrot, then it's dangling right out in front of us. If that's what motivates the guys to do what they need to do on a daily basis, then good.

"It's not something we're focusing a hell of a lot of energy on, but we've certainly got to keep an eye on the bigger picture, and that's where we sit at the moment."

Captain Jonathan Brown was also circumspect. "Where we are in our stage of development, we're not really thinking long-term. We're just trying to improve," he said. "But from where we were a month or five weeks ago, we've just tried to train as hard as we can.

"We've got a great opportunity to test ourselves this week against Sydney, and the boys are really looking forward to that challenge. We'll go in with some good form."